Scott explores the puzzling relationship between congenital blindness, schizophrenia, and autism, discussing potential explanations and the need for further research. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the intriguing psychiatric trivia that congenitally blind people never develop schizophrenia, but are 50 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism. He explores this in the context of the diametrical model of autism vs. schizophrenia, which suggests these conditions are opposites in many ways. Scott speculates on possible explanations, including the idea that blindness might shift certain neural hyperparameters towards the autism end of a spectrum. He acknowledges the complexity of the issue and the need for further research, mentioning studies on sensory deprivation and its effects on both conditions. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander analyzes the results of his utility and QALY survey, discussing interesting findings and the challenges of utility measurement. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the results of a utility and QALY survey he conducted. He notes several interesting findings, including a striking imbalance in respondents' last names, people's attitudes towards death, and differences in how single people and those in relationships view each other's situations. The post then delves into the utility calculations, noting that while the three methods used correlated inconsistently with each other, their averaged results were remarkably consistent. Scott also observes wide ranges in individual responses but similar preference orderings among respondents. He compares his results for blindness to established health research findings, concluding that while utility measurement is challenging, his test seems as valid as others. Shorter summary